Arts & Entertainment

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Gradina Balkan Music Ensemble at Occidental Center for the Arts. Gradina Saturday November 14

Saturday November 14 @ 7 pm: Gradina Balkan Music Ensemble at Occidental Center for the Arts. Gradina is a Balkan music ensemble based in California’s North Bay area. We celebrate the seasons and their festivals through song and dance, bringing Old World rituals to new light and new generations to revel in the staying power of gratitude for life on Earth.We sing both a cappella and with instrumental accompaniment. We lean toward traditional songs and arrangements. We present “sit-down” concerts for choral listening as well as dance concerts, and we are also available to teach most of the dances we present. […]

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Historians straightwashed a 1600s poet. A new book captures the true legacy of “the Welsh Sappho.”

When the Welsh government in 2021 embarked on what Deputy Minister of Social Partnership Hannah Blythyn described as a project to make Wales “the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe,” Welsh scholar Norena Shopland was commissioned to help train librarians, museum staff, and archivists on the inclusion of LGBTQ+ history. In 2022, Shopland served as founding researcher in an inspiring and beautifully done countrywide effort to write a local LGBTQ+ open-access online history for each of the twenty-two counties of Wales, providing, she wrote, “a means by which local people, allies and events can be celebrated instead of replicating mainstream narratives and […]

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Halloween Eve with Thugz at Occidental Center for the Arts on October 30

Friday October 30 @ 7 pm: Halloween Eve with Thugz at Occidental Center for the Arts! Join us on Halloween Eve for a fun night with the THUZ (Tribal Hippie Underground Zone)! Enjoy your favorite Grateful Dead and classic Americana tunes as we dance the night away. Cash prize for best costume. Doors open at 6:30 PM. Tickets $20/$15 for OCA Members at www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org; or at the door. Beer, wine, fine refreshments. Art Gallery open. Wheelchair accessible. Parking available. 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. 95465. OCA is a non-profit arts organization with volunteer staffing for events.

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Sabbath Lives! Halloween Party at Occidental Center for the Arts Happens October 31

Saturday October 31 @ 8 pm: Sabbath Lives! Halloween Party at Occidental Center for the Arts.It’s a Halloween Party celebrating the Prince of Darkness! Don’t miss this special Halloween performance of Sabbath Lives in Occidental. Well known throughout the Bay Area, Sabbath Lives recreates the classic, heavy, and blues-infused sound of the godfathers of heavy metal, focusing on accurate guitar tones, raw power, and iconic Ozzy-era anthems. With Tom Finch, Kalyan Godden, Dana Miller and Troy Bradley. It’s Halloween so dress up! Cash prize for best costume.Doors at 7:30, Show at 8:00 PM. Refreshments/beer/wine for sale, free parking. Wheelchair accessible. […]

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Elemental Magic Ritual for Midterm Elections at Occidental Center for the Arts Happens October 25

Sunday October 25 @ 6 – 9 pm: Elemental Magic Ritual for Midterm Elections at Occidental Center for the Arts. We’ve marched in protest, written postcards and signed petitions, emailed our reps, honored the boycotts, and we are absolutely going to vote! Is there anything else that we can do? YES!  Join us at our Community Ritual using simple elemental magic and our own vital energy to focus attention and bring positive results to the midterms and beyond!  Doors open at 6 pm and close at 6:30 pm. Donations appreciated. Questions/info at BohemianExchange@gmail.com. OCA is at 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. […]

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Black Gay American Author Urges Black LGBTQ+ Americans to Consider South Africa as Trump Welcomes White South Africans

While President Donald Trump’s administration is opening America’s doors to thousands of predominantly white South African Afrikaners, Black Gay American author Elias Whitfield is encouraging Black LGBTQ+ Americans to consider moving in the opposite direction: out of the United States, toward South Africa and other Black- and LGBTQ+-affirming destinations—to pursue greater cultural peace, financial security and LGBTQ+ acceptance. The contrast comes as the Trump administration plans to set a 17,500-person refugee admissions ceiling for the coming fiscal year, consisting primarily of South Africans from the country’s white Afrikaner minority. Although the administration says Afrikaners face racial persecution, the South African […]

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“Slave Play” Opens September 25 at The Left Edge Theatre

What happens when the past refuses to stay in the past?At the MacGregor Plantation, the old South lives on, in the cotton fields, in the master’s house, and in the complicated relationship between fear, desire, race, gender, and power.  In SLAVE PLAY, acclaimed playwright Jeremy O. Harris rips open the history we think we know and brings it into conversation with 21st-century America. Provocative, explosive, and unflinching, this daring play challenges audiences to confront the ways race, gender, sexuality, and power continue to shape our lives.  SLAVE PLAY has been recognized with the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, Lotos […]

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Friday, September 25 @7 pm/Sunday Sept. 27 @ 3 pm : Acorn MusEcology Project: ‘The Earth Says’ at Occidental Center for the Arts

Friday, September 25 @7 pm/Sunday Sept. 27 @ 3 pm : Acorn MusEcology Project: ‘The Earth Says’ at Occidental Center for the Arts. Directed by Sarah Dupre, Acorn MusEcology Project is proud to present the Northern California premiere of Alex Berko’s Sacred Place, an immersive exploration of ecological spirituality set to the words of Wendell Berry, John Muir, William Stafford, and Rabindranath Tagore. Acorn’s 27-voice ensemble will be joined by violin, cello, and piano to offer up this song cycle of reverential texts within a richly-layered soundscape. Additional original music by co-directors Sarah Dupre and Robin Eschner includes a new setting of poetry by […]

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Friday/Saturday September 18 & 19: Occidental Jazz Festival! at Occidental Center for the Arts.

Friday/Saturday September 18 & 19: Occidental Jazz Festival! at Occidental Center for the Arts. OCA offers audiences an opportunity to experience jazz in an intimate setting , where musicians and listeners truly connect. Greg Johnson, leader of Glass Brick Boulevard curated the lineup, as well as directing the Junior-Jazz All Stars youth band. This year’s festival continues OCA’s commitment to presenting exceptional regional artists while creating opportunities for audiences to discover new music and new voices. Featuring Jose Neto and Netoband, Glass Brick Boulevard, Paul Hanson, Michael Manring and Scott Amendola, Jaycie Grady 4 Tet, Ken Cook Trio and the Junior […]

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September 12 @ 8 pm at Occidental Center for the Arts Fall Into Funk Dance Party with Ariel Marin & James Earley Band

Saturday September 12 @ 8 pm at Occidental Center for the Arts. Fall Into Funk Dance Party with Ariel Marin & James Earley Band!Join us for a fun night of your favorite funky tunes performed live by one of the Bay Area’s hottest bands! Songstress Ariel Marin, James Earley and talented friends return for an evening of funky grooves, groovy funk and everything you need to get your dance on! Tickets are $25, $10 for OCA members at www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org; or at the door. Limited seating. Dance floor. Wheelchair accessible. Fine refreshments, Art Gallery open at intermission. 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. […]

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